EVH 5150 III El34 C137 MOD

  • Thread starter Thread starter MetalHeart
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MetalHeart

MetalHeart

Active member
OK so I've had this amp for about 3 years now and about two months back I did the C137 mod. Just to see what I was missing. All the talk about it opening up the amp, no flabby bottom, sounds just like the 6l6 blue channel etc.

Well it sucks! The mod took away a lot of gain and sounded stiff as hell is the best way I can describe it. Even with a boost in front it did nothing for me. I try giving it some time to grow on me, well it didn't.
So tonight, I went back to stock .
Ahhhh yeah it sounds killer. Blue channel gain at noon to 2 o'clock is it for me and if I need to tighten it up any i just hit my tube screamer. I wished I had never did the mod now but hey you live and learn.

I know a lot of people praise this mod but it was not for me. Just wanted to share my experience.
 
What guitar and pickups are you using with the amp, OP?
 
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I'm glad someone had the courage to finally admit this mod fucking sucks. I got piled on back in the day for saying this and sharing my experiences. I welcome a 2nd round. I still don't know where this mod originated from and who suggested it and spread it on the internet. All it does is neuter the channel and at higher volumes becomes even thinner sounding. Depending on what guitar and pickup combo you're using it gets even more stringy sounding. Technically I guess that does tighten up the amp but at a cost of good tone, albeit loose. Mod is fucking garbage. Come at me bros
 
i did the mod on mine without even trying it stock which was probably dumb, but all i read was how the mod made the blue channel like the other 5153's which everyone loves so i said fuck it.. i now understand, the blue channel is glorious. the red channel too as long as you keep the gain below 9 oclock. it did take me a while to bond with this amp, but honestly i think that was more just not wanting a $750 run of the mill amp to hang with some of my cool kid amps, but it really is great.
 
I modded my OG 100 watter back when I had it. Kept it that way for a few weeks and then put it back to stock. I think the 5150 III line is the best bang for the buck amps on the market for rock and metal.
 
If you want to do the mod right, put it on a pot so you can have as much or as little flub as you want.

IMO the 5150 III's are really good amps that can hang with most anything out there, but they do have very aggressive hardwired low end filtering on the gain channels. They should've had Tightness controls on both Red and Blue channels so people could have dialed the sound to be anywhere between huge fat unfiltered OG 5150 gain and tight 5150 III gain.
 
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PurityS.L.G said:
I still don't know where this mod originated from and who suggested it and spread it on the internet. All it does is neuter the channel and at higher volumes becomes even thinner sounding. Depending on what guitar and pickup combo you're using it gets even more stringy sounding. Technically I guess that does tighten up the amp but at a cost of good tone, albeit loose. Mod is fucking garbage. Come at me bros
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I thought the path by which the mod became popular was fairly clear. Whether you prefer the 50w EL34's thicker Blue channel or the 50w 6L6's tighter Blue channel, it's very apparent they are quite different. From there I think it's only natural to figure out specifically what is different about them at the circuit level, and from there, try to see if anything could be done to either one to get them to sound like the other.

Once it was discovered that the difference came down to a single component with easily accessible flying leads, and that all you had to do was clip one of them to mod the amp back to the 6L6 Blue channel sound, making it the easiest possible kind of mod you can do to an amp, word spread pretty quick from there.
 
Bram576 said:
totally the reason so many people hate on these amps.
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I think not digging my 6505+ probably gave me some preconceived notions as well, that’s the one amp I have that I’ve just never bonded with at all and i think i was just ready to not like the 5153 cause of that, which really makes no sense at all :dunno: :LOL: might be time to give the 6505+ another go, its been years now since i plugged into the thing
 
MetalHeart said:
OK so I've had this amp for about 3 years now and about two months back I did the C137 mod. Just to see what I was missing. All the talk about it opening up the amp, no flabby bottom, sounds just like the 6l6 blue channel etc.

Well it sucks! The mod took away a lot of gain and sounded stiff as hell is the best way I can describe it. Even with a boost in front it did nothing for me. I try giving it some time to grow on me, well it didn't.
So tonight, I went back to stock .
Ahhhh yeah it sounds killer. Blue channel gain at noon to 2 o'clock is it for me and if I need to tighten it up any i just hit my tube screamer. I wished I had never did the mod now but hey you live and learn.

I know a lot of people praise this mod but it was not for me. Just wanted to share my experience.
Click to expand...


I never understood the cork sniffery behind "clip this resistor" type bullshit. Like the amp designer didn't actually have a plan or reason for it to be there.

You know the ole...
"Clip the bright cap hurrr hurrrrrr" instead of just turn the fuckin treble down situation.

It's like people can't stand for a knob to be turned anywhere past 10am-2pm on a control panel. It's like... they feel the need to change a resistor value instead of just use the fucking range of the tone controls 😂😂 So they do a rail of cork dust off the keyboard and grab their wire clippers.

🫠
 
ChuggNorris said:
I never understood the cork sniffery behind "clip this resistor" type bullshit. Like the amp designer didn't actually have a plan or reason for it to be there.

You know the ole...
"Clip the bright cap hurrr hurrrrrr" instead of just turn the fuckin treble down situation.

It's like people can't stand for a knob to be turned anywhere past 10am-2pm on a control panel. It's like... they feel the need to change a resistor value instead of just use the fucking range of the tone controls 😂😂 So they do a rail of cork dust off the keyboard and grab their wire clippers.

🫠
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So are you a "cork sniffer" because one time you put ketchup on a plain hamburger somebody grilled for you? They were the "designer" of the burger after all, and they gave you the plain hamburger for a reason, right? Or maybe they just gave you most of what you wanted, and they made it that way because that's what would work for the largest number of people, and you took one extra step and made the burger closer to what you wanted it to be.

Whether you're putting ketchup on a burger or changing around parts in an amp, or a cars, or anything else, it's all the same shit. You're just making something designed to appeal to a whole lot of people but not be perfect for any single one of them and making it work better for you.

Also, on most amps, cutting a bright cap doesn't do the same thing as turning the treble down.
 
ChuggNorris said:
I never understood the cork sniffery behind "clip this resistor" type bullshit. Like the amp designer didn't actually have a plan or reason for it to be there.

You know the ole...
"Clip the bright cap hurrr hurrrrrr" instead of just turn the fuckin treble down situation.

It's like people can't stand for a knob to be turned anywhere past 10am-2pm on a control panel. It's like... they feel the need to change a resistor value instead of just use the fucking range of the tone controls 😂😂 So they do a rail of cork dust off the keyboard and grab their wire clippers.

🫠
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Uh, no. Sorry
 
ChuggNorris said:
I never understood the cork sniffery behind "clip this resistor" type bullshit. Like the amp designer didn't actually have a plan or reason for it to be there.

You know the ole...
"Clip the bright cap hurrr hurrrrrr" instead of just turn the fuckin treble down situation.

It's like people can't stand for a knob to be turned anywhere past 10am-2pm on a control panel. It's like... they feel the need to change a resistor value instead of just use the fucking range of the tone controls 😂😂 So they do a rail of cork dust off the keyboard and grab their wire clippers.

🫠
Click to expand...
Ah my good friend ChuggerNutz :cool:

No cork sniffer here. I guess its similar to you rewiring a 412 cab 10 ways to sundown . Why?

Anyway who doesn't like to tinker with their amps, guitars and pedals and cabinets?

Some people liked the mod. It didn't do it for me.
 
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